As Birds are the main agent for all Quaife's BMW diffs, I thought that they'd be the best people to fit it, so I sorted out all the arrangements with James Bird and took her in today for the LSD, I also decided that she was probably due for a gearbox oil change - it's cheap and much easier on a lift than on axle stands
#320 waiting for open-diff surgery
Into the workshop, up on the lift and work starts
There goes the exhaust & heatshield
Diff out in next to no time
Wish I had a lift or a pit, I'd be able to clean all that
OEM diff dismantled - new Quaife diff in centre
Sometime later, Quaife diff mantled into OEM casing
In best Haines manual tradition, assembly was the reverse of disassembly...
Total time taken was approx 4 1/2 hours - which I thought was pretty good, especially as I was waiting while it was done. During the install I inspected the underside and bushings with the mechanic - all tip top and no need to replace anything
I then drove the 65 miles home, it was a reasonable before/after comparison as I took the same route this morning just did it in reverse to get home
Birds is very close to the M4\M25 junction so, after getting out of Iver, the first 25-or-so miles were motorway, which was good as Quaife say that you should take things easy for the first 10 miles - I guess this is to ensure that everything is well lubricated - but there were no audible indications that an LSD had been fitted, no whines, clunks or clonks, it was perfectly behaved in town and with, brisk, straight-line acceleration up to motorway speeds and during motorway cruising it was all but invisible - I did dive into Cobham services though, and straight back out again, just so I could try the fast curves that Cobham has on the entrance/exit roads
Once off the motorway, DTC was selected (I didn't want to be too gung-ho and turn everything off immediately) as the rest of the journey home was a combination of twisty B-roads and fast A-roads with lots of roundabouts. The car felt different, but in a good way, it seemed much more eager to turn into bends and didn't need quite as much steering input, the tighter the bend the more it tucked itself in. The twisties were definitely more fun and when the A-road roundabouts were empty allowing a fast entry, and faster exit, I could feel the extra traction
As it's been a nice, dry, Spring day, there weren't really any damp/greasy surfaces which I think would have created a bigger contrast but, overall, I'm very pleased,
All-in-all, I don't think I'll be swapping back to an open diff....
